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Industrial collaboration on Uppsala solar cells

June 27, 2003

In five years' time, the first factory-made solar cell panels developed in Uppsala will be on the market. This can become a reality thanks to a new agreement between three major companies, two investment funds, and a spin-off company from the Uppsala University Ãngström Solar Center.

Swedish solar cell technology has long been on the cutting edge of research. Ãngström Solar Center at Uppsala University has the current world record in efficiency for solar cell modules produced using thin-film technology, 16.6%. This is just as high as the best solar cell modules now in use for producing electricity in the large-scale demonstration programs in Japan and Germany. With thin-film technology, considerably cheaper production costs can be attained than with today's solar cell technology, so cheap that solar cells can achieve a major breakthrough in future power generation. Now the next step has been taken toward the realization of this vision, with three major Swedish corporations and two investment funds having decided to invest in the development of a commercial company based on technology from Ãngström Solar Center. The name of the company will be Solibro AB, and it will be located in Uppsala. Solibro was founded by four scientists from Ãngström Solar Center, and the initial company development was supported by Uppsala University Holding and the Technology Bridge Foundation in Uppsala, which are also part-owners. The companies investing in Solibro are ABB AB, Sydkraft AB, and Vattenfall AB. The investment funds are the 6th AP Fund and Norway's Energy Future Invest.

The objective of Solibro is to set up a production company in a field of technology that has tremendous potential for growth in coming decades. Activities in the Solibro company over the next 2-3 years will focus on upgrading laboratory methods from university research to full-scale production technology with a high degree of international competitiveness. This developmental work is being co-financed by the Energy Authority. In the future, a complete manufacturing facility will come online. The first complete solar cell modules are planned to leave the factory five years from now.

Ãngström Solar Center is a research program at Uppsala University supported by the Energy Authority and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. It was founded in 1996 and will run through 2004. It is the long-term and application-oriented activities in this program that have laid the groundwork for the foundation of Solibro. Two further fields of technology are represented at Ãngström Solar Center, smart windows and nano-structured solar cells. Smart windows are also in the initial phases of commercial development, and in the longer term the same goal is in store for nano-structured solar cells.

VetenskapsrÃ�det (The Swedish Research Council)

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